Treecko Line/RSE
Treecko is available as a starter from Professor Birch after saving him from the wild Poochyena (Ruby and Sapphire) or Zigzagoon (Emerald). It is technically 'encountered' on Route 101, but it is officially given to you in Birch's Lab in Littleroot Town. Nuzlockers may choose whether their starter counts as their catch for Route 101 or not, depending on their preferences. Ah, Treecko. The first Pokémon obtained by Ruby in the original Pokemon: Hard Mode comic, and the last one left standing. Treecko is widely considered to be the most difficult Hoenn starter to use, as its level-up movepool is garbage other than Leaf Blade, which comes relatively late at level 29. It also struggles hard in the mid-game, especially around the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth gyms, thanks to bad matchups and weak moves. However, pretty much as soon as it learns Leaf Blade, Grovyle becomes a monster. STAB Leaf Blade from Grovyle and Sceptile is very powerful; that move alone allows Grovyle/Sceptile to OHKO or 2HKO most opponents that do not resist Grass and are not extremely bulky on the special side. The prevalence of Water-types in Hoenn and the fact that the final Gym Leader (and, if you're playing Emerald, the Champion) uses Water-types make Sceptile a very solid Pokémon in the later stages of the game. It also gets a lot more move options in the late-game, as many more good TMs become available around the last couple gyms. All in all, Treecko is a very solid choice for a starter, and even though there are long periods in the game in which it struggles, it more than makes up for it by destroying the late-game. Important Matchups - Emerald = * Rival (Route 103): Unless you're already overgrinding a lot, the best you can do here is Pound spam. So do that. * Gym #1 - Roxanne (Rustboro City, Rock-type): If you're at a decent level, Absorb should be able to one-shot the Geodudes with relative ease. However, don't expect the same result against Nosepass. Although her Nosepass is technically less dangerous than her Geodude, thanks to it having a much lower base Attack stat, it's much more durable with its 95 base Special Defense and its lack of a quad-weakness to Grass-type moves. Unless you've grinded Treecko to Level 16 to evolve it into Grovyle, it probably won't be able to beat Nosepass by itself without a ton of Potion support. Ideally, you could use Bullet Seed from a NPC. * Rival (Rustboro City, optional): Lotad should go down to a few Absorbs or Quick Attacks (or, if you have it, Fury Cutters). It can't do much back to you. Torchic, however, you should obviously stay away from. * Gym #2 - Brawly (Dewford Town, Fighting-type): Brawly's Makuhita has Vital Throw and Reversal, both of which can be extremely powerful and are likely to 2HKO Grovyle at their worst. Critical Vital Throws and full-power Reversals are nothing to sniff at; they will almost certainly one-shot your little lizard. Grovyle does do well against Emerald Brawly's Meditite, as the only attacking move that it has is Focus Punch, which is incredibly easy to work around. Just make sure to use 100% accurate moves. * Rival (Route 110): Your rival has a Wingull and a Lombre; Wingull is dangerous thanks to its STAB Wing Attack, so keep away from that, but Lombre can't do anything to you outside of paralyzing you with Nature Power --> Stun Spore and using the incredibly weak Astonish. Combusken stays the same as it does in Ruby and Sapphire. Our green lizard friend should sit this out. * Wally (Mauville City): LOL Ralts, go ahead and Fury Cutter it. * Gym #3 - Wattson (Mauville City, Electric-type): Wattson has a Manectric that likes to Howl up and threaten your entire team with either a very strong STAB Spark or Howl-boosted Quick Attack. However, his Magnemite from Ruby and Sapphire was replaced by an Electrike, so you're only forced to kill one Steel-type instead of two. Except the Voltorb has SelfDestruct and is dangerous to take on. Yay. This gym battle is the beginning of the part of the game in which you start kicking yourself for picking Treecko. * Tabitha (Mt. Chimney): There are two Numel, which Grovyle would have a lot of trouble facing, for predictable reasons. Poochyena is okay. * Maxie (Mt. Chimney): Grovyle is nearly useless against Maxie thanks to the fact that he has both a Zubat that can wreck you with STAB Wing Attack and a Camerupt that can wreck you with STAB Ember. His Mightyena can be manageable for Grovyle, but it's still rather powerful with STAB Bite and very annoying with Sand Attack and Roar. Archie is a little bit of a better matchup for Grovyle, but it's still not a good one. You're still stuck fighting against the same Mightyena and Golbat, but the Camerupt is replaced by a Sharpedo with Crunch. That will be a 2HKO on Grovyle, pretty much no matter what, and Grovyle lacks the ability to do much damage to it, since the best STAB attack it has access to by this point is the very weak Absorb. As said, it's a little bit of a better matchup, but not by much. * Gym #4 - Flannery (Lavaridge Town, Fire-type): Everything here has very strong STAB Fire-type attacks. Please never have your Grovyle out of its Poké Ball throughout this entire gym. * Gym #5 - Norman (Petalburg City, Normal-type): Norman is very hard. His whole team has Facade among other powerful moves. He opens with Linoone, which is deceptively dangerous: it can Belly Drum and then kill your whole team with Normal STAB. You need to quickly chip away half or more of its health if you want to survive this. Spinda is the only easy Pokémon in his roster. His ace, a level 31 Slaking, should go down to a few Leaf Blades if your Grovyle is around level 32 or so. Expect to take a crapton of damage from its Facade. Vigoroth can be either more dangerous or less so; it lacks Truant, but it also has worse stats. It should go down to two or three Leaf Blades, one if you're lucky and get a crit. * Shelly (Weather Institute): Still a Grovyle? Watch out for that, and Mightyena as well; Take Down hurts, and Swagger makes it worse. Carvanha is easy as pie. * Rival (Route 119): By this point, you should have a Sceptile. Sceptile can destroy everything your rival has except for his or her starter; even against Pelipper, you should be fine, as it should go down to one or two Leaf Blades, and its Wing Attack is too weak to do much damage. If it's raining and you're feeling lucky, feel free to stay in on Combusken and destroy it with two or three Strengths. * Gym #6 - Winona (Fortree City, Flying-type): This is a Flying-type gym. Keep Sceptile out of this one, please. * Rival (Lilycove City): Pretty much the same as last time, except here it won't be raining. However, you now have access to Aerial Ace since you should've beaten Winona already (if you just bypassed here and came straight to Lilycove, though, I don't blame you; I do that all the time). If you used Aerial Ace on Sceptile, then it should be able to OHKO or 2HKO Combusken and Lombre with relative ease. * Tabitha (Jagged Pass Hideout): Avoid the camels for the same reasons as ever. The rest is okay, just use Leaf Blade. * Maxie (Jagged Pass Hideout): Except for Mightyena, no. Crobat and Camerupt both kill you easily. * Matt (Lilycove Hideout): Like the other times, spam Leaf Blade against everything. You're golden. * Gym #7 - Tate and Liza (Mossdeep City, Psychic-type): Sceptile can still pull its weight; it handles Claydol very nicely and can most likely 2HKO it with Leaf Blade, and can clean up Lunatone and Solrock. Xatu may seem like a threat to Sceptile, since it's Flying-type, but it doesn't carry any damaging moves other than Psychic. Remember that Solrock has Sunny Day and Flamethrower, so target it first to avoid getting nailed by Flamethrower (it will almost definitely not be a OHKO or even a 2HKO since Solrock's Special Attack sucks and Flamethrower doesn't get STAB, but still). * Maxie and Tabitha (Mossdeep Space Center, tag battle with Steven): Don't even select Sceptile as one of the three that you can take in here. It gets crushed by literally every Pokémon that your opponents have. * Shelly (Seafloor Cavern): Mightyena and Sharpedo? Go ahead, you know what to do. * Archie (Seafloor Cavern): You can take out Mightyena and Sharpedo with Leaf Blades, but Crobat is too dangerous, as it's strong against Sceptile and has a quad-resistance to its STAB. * Gym #8 - Juan (Sootopolis City, Water-type): Except Ice Beam/Double Team Kingdra, this battle is completely and utterly an easy Sceptile sweep. If you get low on health somehow (you shouldn't unless you're fighting one of the two aforementioned adversaries), you can just use Giga Drain to heal back up if you have it. Leaf Blade, possibly boosted by Miracle Seed if you went and got it all the way back in Petalburg Forest, can almost definitely OHKO everything on Juan's team sans Kingdra. * Wally (Victory Road): Altaria is a no-go. Gardevoir has a powerful STAB Psychic and is rather bulky on the special side, so you're probably best off handling him (!) with something other than Sceptile. Roselia falls to a quick Aerial Ace or two. Delcatty is pathetic and should go down to one or two Leaf Blades. Magneton resists everything you can have except for Brick Break, Dig, Earthquake, and Focus Punch, but if you have one of those moves (you probably should have at least one, since they provide great coverage), then you should be able to beat it with Sceptile. * Elite Four Sidney (Ever Grande City, Dark-type): Nothing Sidney has except for Shiftry and Cacturne can really take a Leaf Blade. However, Absol has Aerial Ace, so watch out for that. Mightyena probably will be a 2HKO instead of a OHKO, which will allow it one turn to use Sand Attack, severely hampering Sceptile's sweeping ability. * Elite Four Phoebe (Ever Grande City, Ghost-type): Leaf Blade is unresisted by Phoebe's whole team, but both of her Dusclops are very bulky, so they'll probably be able to take two hits. Banette and Sableye should be OHKOed, though, since they're relatively frail. * Elite Four Glacia (Ever Grande City, Ice-type): Her Sealeos can be one-shotted by Leaf Blade, but Walrein will be able to take more than one non-crit Leaf Blade and can respond with Blizzard, so don't take that risk. Also, stay away from the Glalies. * Elite Four Drake (Ever Grande City, Dragon-type): Doable if you have Dragon Claw (the TM for that is deep within Meteor Falls and requires Waterfall to access), but remember that non-STAB Dragon Claw probably won't be OHKOing many of Drake's Pokémon. Shelgon and Flygon might go down in one hit, but Kingdra, Salamence, and Altaria all have the bulk to survive more than one Dragon Claw and the appropriate moves to properly screw over Sceptile. * Champion Wallace (Ever Grande City, Water-type): Wailord and Whiscash will be murdered by Leaf Blade, but Ludicolo, Milotic, Tentacruel, and Gyarados can probably all take more than two. Tentacruel has mammoth special bulk and has STAB super-effective Sludge Bomb to send your starter packing. Gyarados also has high Special Defense and can use your Sceptile as fodder to set up Dragon Dances, Ludicolo can take a few Leaf Blades and use those turns to set up Double Teams, and Milotic is insanely specially bulky and can retaliate with a powerful Ice Beam. * Post-Game: Stick to the Steven matchup in the Ruby and Sapphire section and you should be fine. }} Moves Treecko starts off with Pound and Leer. It gets Absorb at level 6 and Quick Attack at level 11, both of which are very useful. Pursuit, which comes upon evolution at level 16, will be Grovyle's most powerful specially-based move until the amazing Leaf Blade at level 29. Fury Cutter, also learned upon evolution, is very situational and its base power kind of sucks, so it can be in your moveset, but you probably won't use it often. None of Sceptile's level-up moves are really worth mentioning, since pretty much all of the rest suck except for level 51's Detect, which you might want to use (except it's outclassed by Protect, which can be bought from the Lilycove Department Store). Sceptile's TM movepool, however, is infinitely better than its level-up movepool; unfortunately, though, most of the good TMs are received relatively late in the game. The most noteworthy ones are Dragon Claw, which gives great neutral coverage and can help Sceptile be useful against Drake; the Sunny Day and SolarBeam combo, which is always a decent option for Grass-types; Giga Drain, which provides a decent recovery option; Iron Tail, which really isn't all that good but is rather powerful; Dig or Earthquake, which provide invaluable Ground-type coverage; Strength, which is one of Grovyle's best mid-game move options; Aerial Ace, which gives good coverage against the Grass-types and Bug-types that resist Sceptile's STAB; and Brick Break, because it's always good to have Fighting-type coverage. Recommended moveset: Leaf Blade, Dragon Claw, Earthquake / Dig, Brick Break / Giga Drain / Aerial Ace Other Treecko's stats Grovyle's stats Sceptile's stats * What Nature do I want? Rash, Mild, and Quiet are all quite good. Modest may also seem nice, but keep in mind that it’ll lower the power of your coverage moves, such as Brick Break, Aerial Ace, or Earthquake. Careful, Impish, Jolly, and Adamant are pretty awful, as they cut Sceptile’s already decidedly average Special Attack. Sceptile is crazy fast, so it can afford to have its speed lowered a little bit. * At what point in the game should I be evolved? You should have a Grovyle by the time you’ve reached Brawly, and you should have a Sceptile around the Weather Institute or Fortree City. * How good is the Treecko line in a Nuzlocke? It's pretty good. It's very good in some parts of the game, but for almost the entirety of the middle section of the game, it fares awfully in important matchups. * Weaknesses: Flying, Bug, Poison, Fire, Ice * Resistances: Grass, Ground, Water, Electric * Immunities: None * Neutralities: Normal, Fighting, Rock, Ghost, Steel, Psychic, Dark, Dragon Category:Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Category:List of Evolutionary Lines with Completed Analyses